THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff

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1 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff SUMMARY: The document below is the Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the last will and testament, dated 28 February 1603 and proved 25 March 1608, of Sir Edward Stanhope, Doctor of the Civil Laws, before whom Oxford acknowledge several indentures (see TNA C 146/7040, TNA C 147/152, and NRO NPL 201). The latter indenture was acknowledged by Oxford before Stanhope at Oxford s house in Broad Street on 22 June The testator was the son of the courtier Sir Michael Stanhope (b. before 1508, d.1552) and his wife Anne (c ), the daughter of Nicholas Rawson of Aveley, Essex. For their children, including the testator, see the inscription on the tomb of Anne (nee Rawson) Stanhope in Shelford Church in Brown, Cornelius, Lives of Nottinghamshire Worthies, (London: H. Sotheran & Co., 1882), p. 109, available online: By Sir Michael she had these children, Sir Thomas Stanhope of Shelford in the County of Nottingham, knight; Eleanor, married to Thomas Cooper of Thurgarton in Com. Nottingham, esquire; Edward Stanhope, esquire, one of her Majesty s Council in the north parts of England; Julian, married to John Hotham of Scarborough in Com. Eborum, esquire; John Stanhope, esquire, one of the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber to our most dear Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth; Jane, married to Sir Roger Townshend of Eyam in Com. Norfolk; Edward Stanhope, Doctor of the Civil Law, one of her Majesty s High Court of Chancery; Michael Stanhope, esquire, one of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth; besides Margaret, William and Edward, who died in their infancy. The testator s eldest brother, Sir Thomas Stanhope (d.1596) of Shelford, was the father of Oxford s brother-in-law, Sir John Stanhope (d.1611). Sir John Stanhope (d.1611) and his children are left several bequests in the will below. For the will of Oxford s brotherin-law, Sir John Stanhope (d.1611), in which he mentions the lease of Weston left to him by the testator in the will below, see TNA PROB 11/117, f For the will of Oxford s sister-in-law, Katherine (nee Trentham) Stanhope, see TNA PROB 11/137, ff The testator and Oxford were also related by marriage through the testator s sister, Jane (nee Stanhope) Townshend Berkeley, whose first husband was Sir Roger Townshend (c ), a servant of the Howards to whom Oxford sold his manor of Wivenhoe and with whom he had other financial relations. After Sir Roger Townshend s death, his widow, Jane, in 1598 married Henry, Lord Berkeley ( ), whose first wife had been Oxford s first cousin, Katherine Howard (d.1596), sister of Thomas Howard ( ), 4th Duke of Norfolk, whose life Oxford had tried to save. See G.E.C., The Complete Peerage, Vol. II, (London: St Catherine Press, 1912), p In the will below the testator leaves a bequest to his nephew, Robert Townshend, the second son of Sir Roger Townshend (c ) and the testator s sister, Jane. Sir Robert Townshend was later the patron of Ben Jonson ( ). According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

2 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff During the early years of the new century Jonson lodged with various friends and patrons. Ben. Johnson the poet nowe lives upon one Townesend observed John Manningham the diarist in February 1603 referring to Sir Robert Townshend, at some stage the patron also of John Fletcher and scornes the world (Diary of John Manningham, 187). The connections between Oxford and the testator suggest that Oxford would have known Jonson. The testator s scandalous relationship with Elizabeth Blackwell, mentioned at length in the will below, was alluded to in Martin Marprelate s Epistle in 1588: Riddle me a riddle. What is that? His Grace threatened to send Mistress Lawson to Bridewell because she showed the good father Doctor Perne a way how to get his name out of the Book of Martyrs, where the turncoat is canonized for burning Bucer s bones. Dame Lawson answered that she was an honest citizen s wife, a man well known, and therefore bade his Grace, and he would, send his uncle Shory thither. Ha, ha, ha! Now, good your Grace, you shall have small gains in meddling with Margaret Lawson, I can tell you. For if she be cited before Tarquinus Superbus Doctor Stanhope, she will desire him to deal as favourably with her in that cause as he would with Mistress Blackwell. Tsk, tsk, tsk! Will it never be better with you, Mistress Lawson? For the will of Elizabeth Blackwell s husband, William Blackwell (d.1610), see TNA PROB 11/115, ff For a biography of the testator, see Cooper, Charles Henry and Thompson Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses: , Vol. II, (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell & Co., 1861), pp , available online. The testator died on 10 March RM: T{estamentum} D{omi}ni Ed{wa}r{d}i Stanhope Milit{is} Legum D{o}c{t}oris In the name of God the Father, my Creator, of God the Son, my only Saviour, and of God the Holy Ghost, the true comforter of my faith, of whom I have received all those blessings both of soul and body which I have been and am partaker of, by whom I receive full pardon and remission of all my sins and offences, and through whom my faith is strengthened to the finishing of this great work of my salvation, to that holy and undivided Trinity, three persons, one only true and ever-living God, be all honour, dominion and praise for evermore, I, Edward Stanhope, Doctor of the Civil Laws, the fourth son of Sir Michael Stanhope, knight, and the Lady Anne, his wife, deceased, being in good health and of perfect memory at the writing hereof (his holy name be praised for it), but in soul laden with the grievous burden of my many sins, of the which I do desire to be cured by the all-only physician, Christ Jesus, I being now desirous to depart in peace and to set up my rest with the blessed Apostle Cupio dissolvi et esse eum Christo,

3 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff to the end that before the sentence of Cras morieris be pronounced I may with comfort receive that watchword Dispone Domui tuae, I do in this holy fear make this my last will and testament, revoking all former wills by me made whatsoever: First, to begin with that most principal part which every true Christian ought to respect as that for which he is to be called to a most strict account, I most humbly crave of my heavenly Father that assurance of his holy spirit whereby all my words, works and thoughts may join in one consent from the bottom of my heart to beg of him that he will in mercy wash and cleanse my soul from the corruption of old Adam which hath defiled it, wash it, I say, in the blood and merits of his Son Christ, and not in his justice lay unto my charge my manifold pollutions of my soul by giving way to the inordinate lusts of the flesh by hunting over-greedily after the corrupt enticements of worldly covetousness and by over-yielding to Satan s assaults, but in the greatness of his mercy pardon all those and what else soever my innumerable transgressions, and lay them upon him who for sinful man became sin that he might bring me home unto himself, that so after this race run, at the loosing of my soul from this mass of corruption it may receive, not a reward of any merit of mine, but be made partaker of that free oblation of the unspotted Lamb which is by his heavenly Father given to all those who in steadfastness of faith do in his Son s name call upon him with a true penitent and obedient heart, and do by the governance of his holy spirit give testimony in their life and conversation that their repentance is not in lip-labour alone, nor their faith an idle bubble in the water, but in the true labour in the vineyard in following the word and work of our Master Christ in hearing and practicing the doctrine of his apostles; let my faith, O Father, thus fructify, that at all times and even at that hour when all the enemies and accusers of my soul will be most busy to work their last spite and revenge on it, my faith may then be most strong whilst speech doth last, and after that faileth, with inward voice to cry unto thee: O heavenly Father, receive my soul; O Lord, let not that perish which thy Son hath so dearly bought; O Lord, have thou mercy on my soul which thy Son hath purchased with his merit; into thy hands, Father, I commend my soul, who art the only God of all truth and whose promises neither can nor will fail them whose faith thou strengthenest unto the end, and in the end I know my Redeemer liveth, and this corruption shall put on incorruption, and then shall my heart rejoice in thy salvation when this joyful alarum shall sound: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the joys which have been prepared for you before the foundation of the world were laid ; For my body, as by nature it is earth, and therefore by corruption must return to earth again, being of itself no other but a mass of most filthy corrupted worms meat, so do I recommend it to the earth from whence it came, there to receive his alteration in sure and steadfast hope that, being resolved into itself, dust into dust, it shall at the joyful sound of the trumpet at the latter day be quickened again, and I shall with it put on incorruption, and so receiving a most blessed exchange, I shall in it and with it attend with God s elect to glorify his blessed name in his heavenly kingdom whence-from all corruption is banished; For the place where my body shall be interred, if I die in London or suburbs thereof, and serve the church and commonwealth in those places which I do now attend, my desire is

4 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff to be buried in the body of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, London, in the north aisle, somewhat towards the stairs going up to the choir; If I depart this life forth of London and the suburbs thereof, then I will my body to be buried in such place of the chancel of the parish church where I shall exchange my life at the appointment of my executor or executors hereafter to be named unless I do before my death, either by writing or by word before witness, dispose of my body to be buried in some other place by me to be named; For the charge and place of a tomb to be made for me, if I be buried in the north aisle of the body of the Cathedral Church of St Paul, London, my desire is to have the like vault to be made in the wall upon the left hand going to the choir as is in the same wall made for Mr Linacre betwixt his tomb and the going to the choir stairs, with such proportion of my body as my executors shall best like to make for me, and some inscription easy to be read so high setting down my parentage, my degree of school, my place in that church, and the time which I spent both in the church and commonwealth since I served in them; If it please God I be buried elsewhere, I leave it to the love, kindness and discretion of my executor or executors what moderate charge they will be at for my tomb in the parish church where they shall lay my body; For all other solemnity of funerals to be made for me, I do most freely confess that all pomp therein used doth somewhat savour of over-great a self-love of those earthly carcasses whereby in the pride of our flesh we seek to build tabernacles for that lump of clay which in the looseness of our lives we most wickedly pampered to rebel against the spirit, yet not to condemn all honest and moderate charge in the fear of God used amongst Christians for heralds and blacks commonly used at funerals, I doubt not but my executor or executors will see the first performed as shall be fit for themselves and me, and for the latter, for my brothers and sister, their wives and husbands, I know my executors will respect them and their callings to give them blacks, which is my desire, as also such other of my kindred as shall accompany my corps to the ground; For other my particular friends, if I depart this life in London, I desire that my good friends and fellows, Doctor Donne, Doctor Gibson and Doctor Ferrand, if they be in London or near it, or in their absence the four ancientest judges of my Lord s Grace of Canterbury s courts, if they be then in London, may be required to accompany my corps to the church, each of them to have given them a mourning gown and one man apiece a mourning cloak; I further will that such good and godly preacher as shall be most conversant with me at or towards my end (which benefit I especially beg of God that I may not be destitute of godly instruction when the enemy will be most busy to have his conquest of me), he, the said preacher, may accompany my friends to the funerals; If none such be with me, which God forbid, then some other virtuous and discreet preacher to be by my executors required to instruct those who shall be assembled at my

5 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff funerals, wherein I pray him that he will rather seek to edify the congregation then assembled, according as God s spirit shall direct him, than bend himself to use the overcommon adulation of this age, as if sermons used at funerals were devised to lay cushions of flattery under the dead corps how far soever in this life he have rebelled against God, unto which preacher I do give one mourning gown and hood according to his degree, leaving the farther recompensing of his travail and pains taken with me in my sickness to the discretion of my executor or executors; I do further give to my Lord s Grace of Canterbury his principal Register, and the Lord Bishop of London (if I serve in those places where I do) his principal Register, each of them one mourning gown; To Mr James Wilford of Lincoln s Inn one mourning gown; Item, I give to Mr George Paule one mourning gown; Item, I give to the steward and cook of the Doctors Commons and to the porter of the same society, each of them one mourning cloak; Item, I give to forty poor men, whereof eight to be inhabitants in the parish where I shall die, the other to be at the appointment of my executor or executors, each of them one mourning gown; If I have forgotten any of my friends or good familiars whom my executor or executors shall think fit to have any mourning cloth given them, I leave it to his or their discretion to supply that want of kind remembrance for me; Item, I give to Henry Wright, dwelling at Egmanton in the county of Nottingham, my true and old servant, one mourning cloak, and to every man-servant ordinarily attending on me who hath my livery at my death, to each of them one mourning cloak; Item, I do give, not in respect of any merit either in my life or after my death thereby to be discerned which is injurious to my Redeemer Christ, but to the relief of the poor, being fellow members with us, twenty pounds of money, not to be distributed at the day of my funerals upon idle and vagrant persons, but to be delivered by my executors within one week of the day of my funeral unto the minister and churchwardens of the parish where I shall depart this life, some discreet man being joined by my executors to go with the said minister and churchwardens to such poor householders as are not able to get their own living, and to deliver to eight score such householders, either of the parish where I shall depart his life or, if there be not so many such householders, then to the next parish or parishes adjoining to it, to each householder wanting as before, two shillings six pence; Item, I do give forty pounds in money to be delivered by my executor or executors to the Master, or in his absence, to the senior Bursar of Trinity College in Cambridge whereof I was a member, in manner and form following: ten pounds to be paid within one month after my decease, and so yearly, within one week of the same time, ten pounds, until the

6 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff whole sum of forty pounds abovesaid shall be paid, which said sums of ten pounds being thus paid unto the said Master or senior Bursar, they shall, upon the first quarter day either of Saint Michael, the Nativity of Our Saviour Christ, th Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, or the Feast of Saint John Baptist which shall happen, deliver unto twenty poor subsizars who have their names in the buttery-book and do go to public lectures in the hall, two shillings six pence to every one, and so quarterly to twenty subsizars qualified as above during the rest of the receipt of the whole forty pounds, two shillings six pence apiece every quarter day until the whole forty pounds be so distributed; Item, I do give eight score pounds to the four prisons of Ludgate, Newgate, the Counter in Wood Street and the Counter in the Poultry, to each prison forty pounds, to be paid by my executor or executors and distributed to those prisons in manner following: forty pounds in money to be delivered by my executors to the Chamberlain of London and the Chancellor of the Diocese of London for the time being within one month before the Nativity of Our Saviour Christ next ensuing after my death, and so yearly, until the sum of eight score pounds be paid, at the same time of the year, forty pounds, of which yearly forty pounds paid by my executors to the Chamberlain of London and the Chancellor of the Diocese of London in manner as above, my will is that the junior Alderman for that time being of the City of London and the Chamberlain of London and the Chancellor of the Diocese for the time being shall, before the New Year s Day commonly called the Circumcision of Our Saviour Christ next ensuing after the receipt of the foresaid forty pounds so to the Chamberlain delivered yearly during the space of four years as aforesaid, cause four score shirts or smocks, four score pair of cloth netherstocks and four score pair of shoes yearly for the four years to be bought, such as is fit for poor prisoners to wear, which the said puisne Alderman and the Chamberlain of London shall present unto the Lord Bishop of London if he be in the City of London, or in his absence unto his Chancellor, upon the twenty-ninth day of December, or in his absence to the Dean of Paul s for the time being, and in his absence to the senior Residentiary of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, London, together with a true note under the said Alderman and Chamberlain s hand what all the said stuff cost, and if there be any money of the forty pounds aforesaid left over and above the price of the aforesaid stuff so yearly bought, they shall likewise bring the remainder of that money with them to the Bishop of London, the Dean of Paul s or the senior Residentiary of the said Church, who after they have together with the said Alderman and Chamberlain viewed over the said stuff, the Under- Chamberlain of London for the time being and the principal Register to the Bishop of London for the time, or if he be not in London, his deputy, shall upon the last day of the said month of December deliver twenty of those shirts or smocks, twenty of those pair of netherstocks and twenty of those pair of shoes to twenty several prisoners in Newgate, and other twenty of all the same things to twenty several prisoners in Ludgate, the third score of all the said things to twenty several prisoners in the Counter in Wood Street, and the last score of the four score of all the said things to twenty several prisoners in the Counter in the Poultry, and what money soever of the several sums of forty pounds for those four years shall appear to the Bishop of London or the Dean of Paul s or the senior Residentiary, to the Alderman aforesaid and the Chamberlain of London shall be found yearly to be left over and above the true price of the stuff so bought, the said Reverend Father or his substitutes above-named, the said Alderman and the said Chamberlain of

7 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff London shall see delivered unto the aforesaid Register and Under-Chamberlain to be equally divided to the foresaid four prisons and employed in victual or other necessaries for the good of other prisoners in the said prisons at the appointment and discretion of the aforesaid Bishop of London or his substitutes as above, the Alderman and the Chamberlain of London; Item, I give to the township of the town commonly called Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire, being the town wherein I was born, the sum of two hundred pounds current money, to be paid unto them within one year after my death by my executor or executors, which two hundred pounds I will shall be employed upon a stock to set the poor on work, with the benefit of the said work to be to the relief of the poor born and dwelling in the said town, the first direction for employment thereof to be at the direction of my executors together with the direction and appointment of the Chancellor to the Lord Archbishop of York and the two next Justices unto the aforesaid town of Hull, the foresaid Chancellor and two Justices of Peace successively for the time being to have authority together with my executors to reform any abuse which shall be committed in the employment yearly of the said stock as often as any of the poor people of the said town who should be relieved with the profit arising of the work of the said stock shall make any complaint thereof unto them; Item, I give to the town of Terrington in the county of Norfolk whereof I have the parsonage forty pounds of current money, to be paid by my executor or executors within one year after my death to the hands of the Bishop of Norwich for that time being and the two next Justices of his Majesty s Peace to the use and benefit of a stock for relief of the poor of the said town of Terrington, which forty pounds so to them paid by acquittance under their hands I will shall presently by them be employed to some use for to set the poor of the said town on work to be relieved by gain of the stuff so by the poor wrought, the stock reserved whole to the said township, and I will that the Chancellor to the Bishop of Norwich for the time being and the two Justices of Peace next adjoining to the said town shall have authority from time to time as well to see the employment of the profit thereof to the use of the poor of the said town as to reform and redress any other complaint which shall be made about the same; Item, I give to the town of Kentish Town in the county of Middlesex whereof I have the prebend twenty pounds of current money, to be paid within one year after my death by my executor or executors to the hands of the Bishop of London for the time being and the two Justices of Peace next inhabiting unto the said town of Kentish Town to the use and benefit of a stock for relief of the poor inhabitants of the manor of Cantlers alias Kentish Town, which said sums of twenty pounds so to them paid by acquittance under their hands I will shall presently by them be employed to some use to set the poor of the said lordship on work to be relieved by the gain of employment of the stuff so by the poor wrought, the stock being reserved whole to the said town, and I will that the Chancellor to the Bishop of London for the time being and the two Justices of Peace next adjoining to the said manor of Cantlers alias Kentish Town shall have authority from time to time as well to see to the employment of the said stock of twenty pounds, the maintenance and continuance thereof, the employment of the profit thereof to the use of the poor of the

8 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff said manor, as to reform and redress any other complaint which shall be made about the same; These charges above set down of heralds of my tomb and for blacks which I have laid upon my executor or executors hereafter named, being a charge partly invented by vanity to set up banners of defiance against true mortification and in part upholden by paganism or a superstitious unwillingness to depart from our friends as if we hoped not in perfect joy to meet in the celestial tabernacle again, I could willingly have desired to have avoided might I have escaped the censure of stoical parsimony, but I leave it to the discretion and judgment of my executors, that if they find the mutability of my estate at my end to have foregone any great portion of that which God at the making hereof hath lent me, then I wholly leave it to his or their direction to dispose of all these three, and to alter them at their pleasure, for I am assured their love is such unto me as they will be more careful than myself in performing these offices of kindness as far as is fit for any to expect of one in my place, but for that small portion by me above set down in token of my duty to help the poor of those places where I received breath, education or maintenance, I confess I have been over-sparing in those necessary actions, and therefore without very great and manifest show of my decayed estate in worldly substance, I cannot but lay the burden upon their consciences whom I commit this trust unto that herein they with increase rather than by defalcation do perform the true part of kind and faithful disposers which I am assuredly satisfied in because I know their love; For the distribution of all other my goods, lands or whatsoever else God hath left unto me to dispose of, I am desirous, so far as my present memory will serve, as thankfully before my end to continue the kindness of my friends by some small tokens which I desire to leave them in remembrance of my acceptance of their many favours as I joyfully embraced their loves in the time which I spent with them, which I hope they will accept with the same loving mind which I give them; First, for that I was from my infancy brought up in that worthy College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge of the foundation of King Henry the Eight, and there lived of the College charge many years as scholar and fellow there, and therefore next unto God and my good parents whom he hath long since taken to his mercy I do confess to have received of that good College the foundation of all which I have since been enabled unto, I give unto the College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge the full sum of seven hundred pounds of current English money, to be paid to the said College by my executor or executors hereafter to be named upon the like acquittance as before I have appointed for the former payment under the College seal in such manner and sort to such use and upon such conditions as hereafter do ensue: That is, if the library in the said College be new-erected and finished before my death and that there shall not be before my death a sufficient stipend allotted for a library keeper and his poor scholar in the said College by any other benefactor, then my will is that my executor or executors shall pay the foresaid sum of seven hundred pounds to the use of the said College within one year after my death, and from the time of my death until that time twelve month at which day they are to pay the said sum, he or they shall pay unto

9 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff the Master for the use of the said College the sum of thirty pounds, to be paid quarterly by even portions seven pounds ten shillings, and at the year s end after my death he or they shall pay the whole seven hundred pounds; But if the library be not finished at my death, then my will is that at th end of six months next after notice given under the said College seal to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, or that See being void, to the Lord Bishop of London, and after such notice by either of them given under their episcopal seal to my executor or executors that the said library is finished, and that such books as the College then hath or the most of them be ready to be placed in desks in the said library, my said executor or executors shall pay unto the said College in sort as above the aforesaid sum of seven hundred pounds, which said sum of seven hundred pounds, if it be not within two years after the College shall have received it employed to the purchasing of at the least two and thirty pounds by year lands, being neither parsonage appropriate nor tenements in any town which we commonly call candle-rents, to the only use and property of the College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge of King Henry the Eight his foundation, and at the two years end shall not under the College seal be certified unto the Archbishop of Canterbury his Court of Prerogative, that public notice of the truth thereof may be taken of the purchasing thereof, unless there be some apparent let or hindrance made by my executor or executors whereby the said College shall be hindered from purchasing of that land within the time above limited, then my will [+is?] that the foresaid sum of seven hundred pounds shall again be repaid to my said executor or executors to their own proper use, whereof before my executor or executors do pay any part the College shall be tied in manner as hereafter is set down by indenture for the true performance of this covenant as of the others which I have above set down; This land of two and thirty pounds by year at the least, and so much more as that seven hundred pounds will purchase, my will is shall be by the said College yearly bestowed upon the maintenance and finding of a library keeper and of his man or poor scholar in the said College forever, the library keeper to be chosen by the Master and Seniors of Trinity College in Cambridge as all other elections in that College be made within one fortnight of the receipt of the foresaid seven hundred pounds or within one fortnight after my funerals if the library be finished before my death, and that my executor be tied to the payment of the first year s annuity of thirty pounds; He shall always be chosen, if there be any qualified as hereafter is set down that will accept of it, De gremio Collegij, one that is or hath been scholar of the College, a single and unmarried man, no dispensation either before or after his acceptance of that place to be allowed him, a Bachelor of Arts at the least, not detected of any public offence or crime, but integre famae, not having when he is chosen nor accepting so long as he shall continue in that place any fellowship in that or any other College, office, lecture, preferment or preachership, nor serving any cure, no practitioner either in law or physic, but upon the very first acceptance of any of these functions shall presently disable him from continuing the place of library keeper;

10 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff He shall not accept any ecclesiastical living whatsoever or of what value soever, either in title by commendation or by sequestration, but shall thereupon ipso facto lose this place; He shall not be absent from the College at any time so long as he holdeth this place upon any licence whatsoever above forty days in the year in all, and that by leave of the Master or Vice-masters and the more part of the eight Seniors unless very great extremity of dangerous sickness upon oath testified do compel him, leaving for his substitute to be allowed by the Master, or in his absence by the Vice-master, of the College one of the same College de gremio Collegij and of the same degree in school which he is of at the time of his liberty to go abroad, in presence of which said Master or Vice-master he shall deliver unto his substitute the keys of the library, and shall write in the College book for those who have leave to go forth of the town the day of his departure and the day of his return, and his substitute shall in the same book write the day of his receiving of the library keys and the day of his delivery of them back; The library keeper shall be a Bachelor of Arts at the least, and never above the degree of a Master of Arts; His diet, wages and livery shall wholly be borne by the College and his chamber allowed unto him and his poor scholar or under keeper in manner following; He shall take his degree of Master of Arts so soon as his time of three years Bachelor is expired; So long as he is Bachelor of Arts the College shall bear the whole charge of his commons and decrements in the Bachelors Commons; When he proceedeth Master of Arts the College shall bear the whole charge of his commons and decrements in the Fellows Commons, which he shall enter into at the same time when those who be chosen maiores Socij do enter into the Fellows Commons; The College shall at their charge pay him yearly for his wages six pounds by the year, to be paid quarterly as the Fellow are, allowing him for the first quarter after the rate of the time of his admission if he be chosen within eight weeks of the end of the quarter, but if he be chosen eight weeks before the end of the quarter, then shall the College allow him thirty shillings for his first whole quarter s wages; The College at their charge shall further pay him yearly for his livery forty shillings by year, to be paid him in money at such time yearly as the College payeth all the Fellows of the house their livery; He being once chosen may continue his place so long as he attendeth his charge diligently and liveth honestly after he hath been seven years Master of Arts without being minister, neither shall he at any time serve any cure or accept any preacher s place either in the town or elsewhere so long as he continueth library keeper;

11 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff To the end that he may be more diligent in his place and the more circumspect in his life and conversation he shall at his admission by the Master and Seniors subject himself by oath to these ordinances and to the statutes of the College, and shall receive Trinam Admonitionem and expulsion from his place for such offences as the Fellows of the College are subject unto; His charge shall be to keep the keys of the library, to see the books and maps in the library and other ornaments of the library cleanly kept by his poor scholar or under keeper, to attend any of the Fellows of the College when they do either go into the library to study or bring in any stranger with them, and to continue in the library so long as any doth stay in it; He shall not suffer any book, map or other ornament belonging to the library to be carried forth of the library after it is once placed or entered into the same unless he have the handwriting of the Master of the College, or in his absence of the Vice-master of the College, for his warrant for delivery of such particular book, map or other ornament by name, and that not to be forth of the said library above fourteen days at the most but he shall call to the Master or Vice-master for it again; His charge shall further be, after the first ledger-book made and written at the charge of the College of all the particular names of every book, map or other ornament given to the College together with his name who gave it, to continue the writing in fair Roman or secretary hand, at his own charge if he write not fair himself, of all such books, maps or ornaments as shall come into or be in the library after his taking of the charge of the Library keeping upon him, and by whom they shall so be given, and for writing of all other things for the good preservation of all the books, maps and ornaments of the said library; He shall, after he is admitted to be library keeper, be subject to all such decrees for the good of the College as the Master and Seniors shall from time to time at their meetings appoint unto him; For tying of him to keep such exercises both in the College and public schools as others who be either minores or Maiores Socij are tied unto, I leave it to the Master and Seniors of the College to appoint him according as they shall see his continual attendance on his charge shall give him respect of study, which I desire he may so apply as that when he shall leave that service he may prove a fit member for the commonwealth in some profession of learning; His chamber for himself and his man shall by the said College be assigned him near to the library where he may be ready for all attendance; Whensoever the said library keeper shall lose his place for any of the causes above set down, or shall be expelled the College for any public offence or cause which by the statutes of the College any Maior Socius is to be expelled for, if the said Master and eight Seniors of the College do not within fourteen days after knowledge of his loss of his place

12 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff make choice of another in all sorts qualified as above, and admit him within seven days after such election made, then shall it be lawful for the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, or that See being void, for the Lord Bishop of London for the time being, to nominate a library keeper of his own election De gremio Collegij who hath been scholar of the College, qualified both for degree and otherwise as is above set down, who upon certificate of such nomination under his archiepiscopal or episcopal seal made to the College shall stand for chosen, and shall be without other election admitted and sworn by the Master and Seniors within three days of his exhibiting of the said nomination as aforesaid; At every change of the library keeper the officers of the said College hereafter named shall see him who is chosen to receive all his charge in the said library, comparing the books and other ornaments with their ledger-book which they are written into; For the library keeper his poor scholar or under library keeper, he shall be chosen and appointed by the Master of the College alone under his own handwriting; He shall be such a one as hath been admitted pensioner, sizar or subsizar in the College six months at the least before his election to that place, and after his acceptance of that place he shall not any more be pensioner or sizar in the College so long as he holdeth that place; He shall lodge in the library keeper s chamber; He shall twice in the week at the least sweep and make clean the library and the common stairs to it, keep off the dust from the books, the seats and desks, the maps, glazed windows and other ornaments of the library; Whensoever he taketh degree of Bachelor of Arts he shall lose his place upon the latter act-day following, and the Master of the College shall under his hand place one other in his place within six days following; He shall never be chosen under fifteen years of age, nor continue in the place after he is twenty-five years of age; The College shall pay unto him at their own charge four pounds by the year for his wages, to be paid quarterly as is appointed for his master, the library keeper; And further it shall be at the election of the Master and Seniors of the College whether they will allow him his diet amongst the sizars and at their board, or the College to pay him ten shillings every quarter of the year for his commons and diet over and above his wages of four pounds; He shall be at the command and government of the library keeper and lodge always in his chamber, who if he find him stubborn, disobedient or negligent of his duty, he shall be complained of unto the Senior Dean of the College, who upon his just desert shall give him open correction;

13 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff If he amend not, he shall, upon the second complaint made by his master the library keeper, receive correction public in the hall in dinner-time; If he be not Adultus by the rod, if he be [+not?] Adultus by other public open shame, [+he shall?] upon the third complaint be called up to the table and admonished by the Master, Vice-master and the Senior Dean to amend upon pain of loss of his place; And upon the fourth and last complaint he shall by the Master and Seniors be removed from his place forever, and another chosen in manner as above; And for the good and safe preserving of all the books and other ornaments of the said library, my request unto the Master and Seniors of the said College is that the Master of the said College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge, or in his absence the Vice-master there, together with the two Deans, the Head Lecturer and the two Bursars of the same, or if any of them be forth of the town his or their substitute, do once every year betwixt the end of their audit and Saint Thomas Day thence next following spend one whole day in the library, or at the least two hours of it in the forenoon and three hours of it in the afternoon, in which time they shall peruse over the catalogue of all their books, maps and other ornaments of the said library and carefully see that all books or other ornaments whatsoever brought into the library or given to the said College the year before be entered and fair written by the library keeper appointed as above, or at his charge, into a ledger parchment book for that purpose appointed, and that all the books, maps, globes and the other ornaments laid in their library and committed to the aforesaid keeper s charge be fast and well kept without tearing out of any leaves, blotting or noting any of them after they shall be laid up in the library, wherein if they shall find the library keeper faulty that any of these things committed to his charge shall by his offence or negligence have been marred or defaced, and that he did not presently upon such hurt done complain unto the Master or Vice-master of it, whereby the offence might have been reformed and the offender receive punishment, then it shall be lawful for the Master or Vice-master and the two Deans, the Head Lecturer and the two Bursars or the more part of them to punish the said fault in the library keeper by the purse at the discretion and according to the grievousness of the fault, so it exceed not above one quarter of a year s wages, unless by his over-great dissoluteness the College do in the things committed to his charge receive very great damage, in which case he is by the Master and Seniors to be removed, and proceeded against as any officer of the College ought to be who doth Devastare bona Collegij, and the foresaid mulct imposed as above upon the said library keeper shall be presently employed towards the repair of the book, map, globe or other ornament spoiled or wasted as above; For the pains of the Master or Vice-master and the other officers above-named that day taken the College shall, out of the thirty pounds by year by me given as above, make allowance of ten shillings by year to be bestowed, the night on which the Master or Vicemaster with the other officers shall meet on as above, upon a supper for them over and above their ordinary commons, to be made in the chamber of the Master or Vic-master or some one of the officers above-named;

14 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff To the end the College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge of King Henry the Eight s foundation may be perpetually tied to perform all the conditions above by me set down, and for that yearly revenue of thirty pounds by the year at the least which they are to purchase with the seven hundred pounds by me given unto them by this my will in sort as is above set down, they are to pay all those charges about the safe keeping of the library by me above set down; My will further is that before they shall receive the foresaid seven hundred pounds there shall indentures be agreed upon betwixt my executor or executors on the one part and the foresaid College on the other part which shall indifferently be drawn by the counsel learned or each part, which if they cannot agree upon, then the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being, or if there be none, the Lord Bishop of London for the time, shall nominate and require some one of the Judges of the King s Bench or Common Pleas indifferently to determine those variances which on each side shall be stood upon, the matter shortly to be provided for to be that the College shall be bound within two years after receipt of the foresaid seven hundred pounds as above to purchase thirty pounds by year at the least and so much more, being neither candle-rent nor impropriation, as for seven hundred pounds may be purchased in fee simple, and that after receipt of the said money within the time above limited they shall at the charge and rate above set down maintain the library keeper and his boy or servant and continue the other charge afore set down, and if at any time after the placing of such library keeper or his servant within the time above appointed the College shall discontinue for one whole year together the having and maintaining both of the library keeper or his boy or either of them in sort above set down, the said College shall in default of the one or the other, that is either in not buying the lands or in not maintaining the said library keeper and his servant in sort as above, unless it befall that the one or the other cannot be performed by reason of some notorious public calamity (which God keep the state and that good College from), repay unto my said executor or executors, their executors or assigns, successively whensoever and whatsoever, the foresaid seven hundred pounds within six months after those two years expired wherein they have omitted either the purchase of the lands or the maintenance of the said library keeper and his boy or servant in sort as above, these indentures to be enrolled in Chancery after they are signed and sealed by the College at my charge; I do besides give unto the said College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge, to be kept in their public library to the use of the said College, to be affixed and chained in their new library if it be finished and desked within six months after the receipt of them, or else within six months after it is finished and desked fit to receive books, my great Hebrew Bible in a large folio bound up in pasteboard in seven volumes with my crest and ES on the outside of the covers commonly called Biblia Sacra Hebraice Caldaice Grece et Latine, otherwise called King Philip s Bible; I do further give unto the said College all my books of divinity, civil or common laws, common or statute laws, history or other humanity books, either in Greek or Latin which I shall be possessed of or have at the time of my death and shall by my last will and

15 THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/111, ff testament or other codicil under my hand and seal not have particularly and by name given away and which the College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity abovesaid hath not already belonging to their public library of the College own at the time of my death; And to th end indifferency may herein be used, and neither the College defrauded of any books which I desire they should have, nor the said College to have any of my books which already they have and so need them not, my will is that so soon after my death as my will shall be published the judge of the court wherein my will shall be proved shall presently give notice under his seal of office to the Master and Seniors of Trinity College in Cambridge above-named that within twenty-eight days after receipt of that letter they do send up under the College seal a particular inventory of all and every particular book which belongeth to the library of the said College by two of the Fellows of the College, being maiores Socij and Masters of Art or above, within which twenty-eight days the said judge of the court wherein this my will shall be proved shall require two of the Doctors of the Arches, if I die in London and have my books in London or near it, to assist my executor or executors hereafter to be named to make a perfect inventory of all my books whatsoever so as it may be delivered to the judge of the said court upon the oath of my executor or executors by the time that the two Fellows of the said College shall be come(?) up, and so my executor or executors hereafter to be named shall require the judge of the court abovesaid to appoint two indifferent men to join with the foresaid two Fellows of the College, who, perusing both the inventories, shall lay out to the use of the said College all such books of mine as above as be not in that inventory which the College sendeth up and those four shall think fit to be affixed in the library to the perpetual use of the said College, which books being by them four chosen out shall be triple inventoried in parchment, one part under the hand of my executor or executors and the hands of the judge of the court where this my will shall be proved and their four hands who do examine both the inventories shall be sent down to the College to remain with the College, one other part shall remain in the court where my will shall be proved, testified by all those hands above-named, and the third part shall be send down to the said College to have their public seal with an instrument testifying the receipt of all the books and discharging my executor or executors of them affixed unto it, which my executors shall receive when he or they shall deliver the said books to such as the College shall give authority unto for to receive them; And if there be any of my books above set down which Trinity College in Cambridge already hath, if they desire to exchange any of their books with mine, as being of a later impression or more fitly bound for them, my will is that the said College may exchange all such books with any of mine which I shall die possessed of and shall not otherwise by my last will, by word of mouth before witnesses or codicil otherwise have given away particularly, the books so exchanged otherwise to be inventoried in manner as above to remain to such uses as I shall in my last will hereafter set down, or otherwise to be sold or disposed of as the rest of my goods unbequeathed shall be; I do further give unto the said College of the Blessed and Undivided Trinity in Cambridge the sum of twenty pounds of current English money, to be paid unto them by my executor or executors within six months after my decease, wherewith my will is the